Vechigen

Municipality in Bern, Switzerland

Vechigen is a municipality in the Bern Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. Until the administrative centralization of 1966 it was made up of four semi autonomous communities; Vechigen, Sinneringen with Boll and Dentenberg, Utzigen with Lindental and Berg with Littewil and Radelfingen.

Vechigen is first mentioned in 1275 as Vechingen. Utzigen was called Uzingen in 1275.

The Vechigen valley and mountain originally belonged to the Baron of Belp Montenach. However, in 1298, they lost their land to the growing city of Bern. From then on, Vechigen was one of the four outer parishes of Bern and until 1798 residents of the village were also citizens of the city. The village church of St. Martin was first mentioned in 1275. It was rebuilt in 1513/14, the bell tower dates from 1486. In 1834 the municipality of Vechigen was formed with four quarters. The quarters were Vechigen, Sinneringen with Boll and Dentenberg, Utzigen with Lindental and Berg with Littewil and Radelfingen. Each quarter was responsible for local administration including schooling and road construction, while the municipality handled taxation and finance. In 1913 the Worblentalbahn opened a rail station in Boll Utzigen. By 1950, the agglomeration of Bern had spread out along this line and the villages of Boll and Sinneringen became part of agglomeration area. The population grew rapidly in these two villages while it dropped or stagnated in the rest of the municipality. As the quarters changed from agricultural into residential, the decentralized government became inefficient and in 1966 it was centralized into a single government. In 1961 a secondary school was built in the municipality and there are now a total of five school buildings.

The Utzigen quarter included the village of Utzigen, the hamlets of Wuhl, Birchi and Lindental and 50 single houses on a hillside above the Worblental. Utzigen grew out of a Late Medieval herrschaft. Starting in the 14th century it was owned by a number of Bernese patrician families. The herrschaft was administered from Utzigen Castle. In 1669, Samuel Jenner (1624–99) built a new castle on the site of the earlier building. After the 1798 French invasion, the herrschaft was dissolved. The owners in 1798, the Dachselhofer family, lost their rights to hold the low court over the herrschaft, but they were able to retain the castle and other property. The castle became the summer residence of that family until 1875 it was sold to the municipality. The municipality established an institute for alcoholics and unemployed man and women. At its peak the institute housed over 500 people, who worked on the large farm attached to the estate. In 1964 it was converted into a nursing and retirement home and in 2001 it became a residential care home. The village has a primary school. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 5.6% and transportation infrastructure made up 2.6%. Out of the forested land, 29.2% of the total land area is heavily forested and 1.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 35.6% is used for growing crops and 23.1% is pastures, while 2.0% is used for orchards or vine crops. All the water in the municipality is flowing water.

The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Gules a Wing Argent.

Vechigen has a population of as of 2010, 6.8% of the population are resident foreign nationals. From 2000 to 2010 the population changed at a rate of 4.4%. Migration accounted for 3.8%, while births and deaths accounted for 0.6%. Most of the population (as of 2000) speaks German (4,415 or 95.7%) as their first language, French is the second most common (42 or 0.9%) and English is the third (40 or 0.9%). There are 21 people who speak Italian and 1 person who speaks Romansh. as of 2000, there were 466 households that consist of only one person and 118 households with five or more people. In 2000, a total of 1,721 apartments (89.7% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 164 apartments (8.6%) were seasonally occupied and 33 apartments (1.7%) were empty. as of 2010, the construction rate of new housing units was 13.9 new units per 1000 residents.

The entire hamlet of Lindental is designated as part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites.

In the 2011 federal election the most popular party was the SVP which received 29.5% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the BDP Party (17.3%), the SPS (16.6%) and the FDP (9.8%). In the federal election, a total of 2,237 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 62.0%.

as of 2011, Vechigen had an unemployment rate of 1.01%. as of 2008, there were a total of 1,159 people employed in the municipality. Of these, there were 299 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 105 businesses involved in this sector. 166 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 37 businesses in this sector. 694 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 94 businesses in this sector. In 2000, there were 402 workers who commuted into the municipality and 1,654 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net exporter of workers, with about 4.1 workers leaving the municipality for every one entering. Of the working population, 27.1% used public transportation to get to work, and 48.5% used a private car. During the 2009 10 school year, there were a total of 482 students attending classes in Vechigen. There were 4 kindergarten classes with a total of 62 students in the municipality. Of the kindergarten students, 4.8% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 3.2% have a different mother language than the classroom language. The municipality had 16 primary classes and 296 students. Of the primary students, 6.1% were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens). During the same year, there were 8 lower secondary classes with a total of 124 students. There were 7.3% who were permanent or temporary residents of Switzerland (not citizens) and 2.4% have a different mother language than the classroom language. as of 2000, there were 19 students in Vechigen who came from another municipality, while 209 residents attended schools outside the municipality.